Okla legislature efforts to roll back criminal justice reform

[patric]

Sounds like the for-profit-prison industry is spreading around some love again:

An important provision in the criminal justice reforms approved by state voters in 2016 would be repealed under legislation approved on a party-line vote in the Oklahoma House of Representative on Wednesday.

House Bill 3694, by Rep. John George, R-Choctaw, would lower the threshold for felony larceny from $1,000, set by State Question 780 eight years ago, to the $500 it had been previously.

Ten states now have thresholds of less than $1,000, and reform advocates insist that there is no evidence that those states have less thievery.

George, a former Oklahoma City police officer, said theft “tripled” in Oklahoma after the passage of SQ 780. Retailers, prosecutors and law enforcement officials have made similar claims.

The higher felony threshold was supposed to lower the state’s prison population and divert offenders to treatment while keeping felonies off their records, and in that respect it has been at least somewhat successful.

That did not seem to much impress George.
“I’m not that concerned with the prison population,” George said in response to a question. “We have to lock up the people who need to be locked up.”

Oklahoma prosecutors have argued that taking away the threat of a felony and jail time for nonviolent crimes such as theft, vandalism and drug possession have taken away their leverage.

Reformers disagree.
Referring to theft as “survival economy,” Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, said, “Making sure we put more people in Oklahoma prisons doesn’t really do anything except make Oklahoma taxpayers pay more for people to live in our prison system. … What it’s going to create is a continuous cyclone of money into our prisons and our jails.”

The cost of incarceration to taxpayers is more than $20,000 per year per inmate, based on various estimates in recent years.

The vote was a blow for reformers who a few years ago seemed to have convinced conservative lawmakers that sending nonviolent offenders to treatment would be cheaper and more effective than prison or life with a felony record.

“It’s necessary for Oklahoma to adopt pragmatic legislation that not only holds violent offenders accountable but also confronts the alarming rise in crime rates,” George said after his bill’s passage. “We have two options: either we can take a lenient approach to crime or adopt smart strategies to combat it.”

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/oklahoma-house-votes-to-roll-back-key-criminal-justice-reform-measure/article_f19d6f9c-dbfc-11ee-9cb7-232b9a5dc25c.html

[patric]

Thanks for this link and the link to the article from The Oklahoman. The Oklahoman article helped answer a lot of questions I had about how this started and the KOKI link provided the pretext to the story. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Short answer: Nothing.

In McCurtain County, Oklahoma, Sheriff Kevin Clardy was caught on audiotape in March of 2023 talking with other county leaders about how they might kill and discreetly bury the bodies of two local journalists who had written stories about alleged corruption inside his office, among others.

CBS News subsequently uncovered that residents had been making allegations of misconduct for years, ranging from financial improprieties to excessive force and neglect of duty. An attorney for Sheriff Clardy declined to respond to questions from CBS News but denied the allegations made in five civil rights lawsuits that are ongoing in federal court.

Interviews with law enforcement insiders combined with an original analysis of police data and court records revealed that three-quarters of reported crimes went unsolved in McCurtain County last year and some apparently suspicious deaths were never investigated or reported by the sheriff's office to independent officials — a violation of state and federal laws.

But even after a viral news scandal, a paper trail of alleged violations with audio and video evidence, and calls from the governor to resign, Sheriff Clardy remains in power today.

"Nothing has happened to them," said McCurtain Gazette reporter Chris Willingham. He and his father Bruce were the journalists whose murders the sheriff and others were heard contemplating. "They have to feel untouchable, they're above the law."

Meanwhile, some who consider themselves victims of the sheriff's office have fled town, saying they fear for their safety.

Over a 40-year period, people died in law enforcement custody at a higher rate in Oklahoma than in any other state, and in 84% of those deaths, officers or deputies didn't report their use of lethal force, according to a study published in The Lancet.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/county-sheriffs-deaths-accountability/